Indian women’s hockey team today lost to Japan 2-1 in the women’s gold medal match at the 18th Asian Games 2018 to settle for silver medal. It was India’s chance to win its first ever gold medal at astroturf as they had earlier won it way back in 1982 Delhi Asian Games in the lush green outfield of Shivaji stadium. India failed to convert their chances and certainly Japan was more clever team out of two, who claimed their maiden gold in women’s hockey at the Asian Games.
Both the teams started on an even note in the first quarter but Japan were smart enough to get a penalty corner in the 11′ minute and Shimizu Minami’s deflection on the flick proved to good for Indian goalkeeper Savita as Japan draw first blood.
India tried to gain some momentum in the second quarter and it was the 25′ minute that proved vital for them. Indian strikers build a counter attack and found the Japanese off-guard. Navnet Kaur went into the “D” and gave a tomahawk pass to Neha Goyal at the far post and she didn’t do any mistake to net the ball past the Japan’s goalie to give India an all important equalizer.
The Indian team kept pressing but the scoreline remained the same at the end of the first half.
Rani Rampal and her company kept the aggressive approach coming into the 3rd quarter but it was Japan who again earned a penalty corner in the 44′ minute.
Knowing that they can’t beat the Indian goalkeeper with speed, they again opted to go for a variation and Motomi Kawumara didn’t do any mistake to drill the ball into the corner to take Japan 2-1 up.
India was in a die need of a goal and frustration started to show as the clock ticked down. India was down to 10 players in the last four minutes as Monika Malik was ruled out due to yellow card suspension. The Japanese were shell compact in the defense but India got the best chance of the match in the 59′ minute which went begging as none of the Indian players were there at the goal mouth to net it past the goalkeeper.
The hooter went and it was a big heartbreak for Indian team, who came as the favourites to win the match. Japan won the gold medal and also qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Goal scorers
